Toby Keith
Toby Keith Covel (July 8, 1961 – February 5, 2024) was an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and businessman.
For the album, see Toby Keith (album).
Toby Keith
February 5, 2024 (aged 62)
- Singer
- songwriter
- actor
- record producer
- businessman
1993–2024
3, including Krystal
- Vocals
- guitar
- Mercury Nashville
- Polydor
- A&M
- DreamWorks Nashville
- Show Dog-Universal Music (formerly Show Dog Nashville)
Keith released his chart-topping debut single, "Should've Been a Cowboy", in 1993. During the 1990s, Keith released his first four studio albums, each of which earned gold or higher certification. Keith's breakthrough single, "How Do You Like Me Now?!", was the title track to his 1999 album of the same name. The single was the number one country song of 2000. Keith's next three albums were certified 4× Platinum, and each album produced three number one singles. In 2005, Keith founded the label Show Dog Nashville, which later became Show Dog-Universal Music. Keith also made his acting debut in 2006, starring in the film Broken Bridges. He co-starred with comedian Rodney Carrington in the 2008 film Beer for My Horses, inspired by his song of the same name.
In all, Keith released 19 studio albums, two Christmas albums, and five compilation albums, totaling worldwide sales of over 40 million albums. He charted 61 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including 20 number one hits and 22 additional top 10 hits. His longest-lasting number one hits are "Beer for My Horses" (a 2003 duet with Willie Nelson) and "As Good as I Once Was" (2005). He was nominated for seven Grammy Awards.[1] Keith was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Donald Trump in a closed ceremony alongside Ricky Skaggs on January 13, 2021.[2]
Keith died on February 5, 2024, following a two-year battle with stomach cancer.[3] He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2024, having been elected just hours after his death.[4]
Early life and education
Toby Keith Covel was born on July 8, 1961, in Clinton, Oklahoma, to Carolyn Joan (née Ross) and Hubert K. Covel Jr.[5][6][7] He has a sister and a brother. The family lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas, for a few years when Keith was in grade school, but moved to Moore, Oklahoma (a suburb of Oklahoma City), when he was still young.[5][7] Before the family moved to Moore, he visited his grandmother in Fort Smith during the summers. His grandmother owned Billie Garner's Supper Club in Fort Smith,[5] where Keith became interested in the musicians who came there to play. He did odd jobs around the supper club and started getting up on the bandstand to play with the band. He got his first guitar at the age of eight.[7]
After the family moved to Moore, Keith attended Highland West Junior High and Moore High School, where he played defensive end on the football team.[5]
Keith graduated from Moore High School[8] and worked as a derrick hand in the oil fields. He worked his way up to become a supervisor. When Keith was 20, he and his friends formed the Easy Money Band, which played at local bars and roadhouses[3] as he continued to work in the oil industry. At times, he would have to leave in the middle of a concert if he was paged to work in the oil field.[9]
In 1982, the oil industry in Oklahoma began a rapid decline and Keith soon found himself unemployed.[10] He fell back on his football training, and tried out for the professional Oklahoma Outlaws. When he did not make the team, he joined its unofficial semi-pro farm club, the Oklahoma City Drillers,[11] and played defensive end while continuing to perform with his band.[12] He then returned to focus once again on music. Keith and his friends formed the Easy Money Band.[13] Easy Money began playing the honky-tonk circuit in Oklahoma[14] and Texas.[15]
Acting career
Television appearances
Keith performed on a series of television advertisements for Telecom USA for that company's discount long-distance telephone service 10-10-220. He also starred in Ford commercials, singing original songs such as "Ford Truck Man" and "Look Again" while driving Ford trucks.
Keith made an appearance at the first Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (then NWA-TNA) weekly pay-per-view on June 19, 2002, where his playing of "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" was interrupted by Jeff Jarrett. He would later enter the Gauntlet for the Gold main event and eliminate Jarrett from the match. He appeared the next week, on June 26, and helped Scott Hall defeat Jarrett in singles action.[48]
In 2009, Keith participated in the Comedy Central Roast of Larry the Cable Guy, which aired on March 14, 2009.[49]
Keith received the "Colbert Bump" when he appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. He holds the distinction of being the only musical artist to have received a five star rating from Stephen Colbert on iTunes. Keith furthered this connection when he appeared in Colbert's 2008 Christmas special as a hunter. Keith also made an appearance as a musical guest on the October 27, 2011, episode of The Colbert Report.
On October 29, 2011, Keith appeared on Fox Channel's Huckabee with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. He played "Bullets in the Gun" and he joined with Huckabee's house band to play a song at the end of the show.
In December 2018, Keith appeared as a guest on Darci Lynne: My Hometown Christmas.[50]
Films
In the Autumn of 2005, he filmed Broken Bridges, written by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld, and directed by Steven Goldmann. This feature film from Paramount/CMT Films was released on September 8, 2006. In this contemporary story set in small-town Tennessee, Keith plays Bo Price, a washed-up country musician. The movie also stars Kelly Preston, Burt Reynolds, Tess Harper, and Lindsey Haun.
Keith wrote and starred in the 2008 movie Beer for My Horses, which is based on the 2003 hit song of the same name recorded by Keith and Willie Nelson.[51]
Business ventures
In 2005, Keith opened Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as well as Syracuse, New York, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and later also had restaurants in Thackerville, Oklahoma; Auburn Hills, Michigan; Kansas City; Las Vegas; Mesa, Arizona; Peoria, Arizona; St. Louis Park, Minnesota; Foxborough, Massachusetts; Cincinnati, Ohio; Newport News, Virginia; and Denver, Colorado. Keith did not actually own the new restaurants; the new restaurant is the first in a franchise under Scottsdale, Arizona-based Capri Restaurant Group Enterprises LLC, which purchased the master license agreement to build more Toby Keith restaurants nationwide. Capri Restaurant Group is owned by Frank Capri, who opened the restaurant in Mesa in the shopping center known as Mesa Riverview and is planning on opening multiple locations across the country.[52]
In 2009, Capri Restaurant Group announced that it will open another "I Love this Bar & Grill" location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's South Side Works shopping and entertainment district.[53]
In 2009, Keith also established a line of clothing, TK Steelman.[54]
February 2010 marked the opening of the Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill in the Winstar World Casino, exit 1 on Interstate 35 in Oklahoma. Other locations opened in 2010 by the Capri Restaurant Group included those in Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and in the Shops at West End in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.[55] Both of which closed in 2015.[56][57]
In 2011, Keith introduced a new drink named "Wild Shot". At first it was only available in Mexico, but now is sold and served in America. It is a featured drink in his restaurant chain.
Keith's music career and his various other business ventures made him one of the wealthiest celebrities in the United States. The July 15, 2013, edition of Forbes magazine features Keith on the cover with the caption "Country Music's $500 million man".[58] The article titled "Cowboy Capitalist" by Zack O'Malley Greenburg also contains information regarding Keith's earnings as a musician over the course of his career, such as earning $65 million in the past 12 months, which surpasses the earnings of even more well known musicians such as Jay-Z and Beyoncé and that he hasn't earned less than $48 million a year over the past 5 years. Keith wrote at least one #1 country single per year over the past 20 years and the partnership between his own label, Show Dog-Universal, and Big Machine Records, which Keith also helped found in 2005.[59]